Sprinklers on Millennium Force

I was at Cedar Point today and today noticed that Millennium Force has a sprinkler system in the station. What is the purpose of this for? It's like when the Train pulls up is when the sprinklers are shooting up under the train. Does this help the train move faster?

I've never noticed this before, but I would think it cools the wheels to make them last longer.

Never seen that before. I've watched them use propane torches to warm up the wheels in the morning, but this is something new!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I noticed the streams of water while the train was out of the loading station. They seamed to be landing in the trough that the catch car rides in. I believe it is there to cool the catch car when it returns to the platform before it attaches to the next train, I think it could also act as a lubricant. First time I noticed it was this July 4 weekend.

I saw them last saturday myself, I asked the ride op and he said it was to cool the wheels down.

Interesting. I heard they were doing this on Intimidator 305, as well.

It's actually a part of the Dragster launch system as well, albeit not for the train wheels. If you walk down the midway near the tower, you'll see they use a water system to cool the launch cable/wheels.

It's possible they have made some discoveries to prolong the life of wheels. I-305 seems to eat wheels daily from the reports, so hopefully they are making some advances. It might be the only step forward for that ride, as there have been several steps backward design-wise.

When I rode Intimidator 305 in June the sprinklers were in the station and the brake run. The brake run sprayers came up from the sides and kinda like a lawn sprinkler, sprayed the entire side of the trains. The station ones were really low pressure and more like a small water foutain on the wheels. Water would puddle on the car joints and during the ride if you sat in the front of the car you got pelted with water for the first few seconds of the ride.

I was there yesterday and noticed them too. I was like what the heck!

Yeah I saw those too, I'm pretty sure that they are just there to cool of the wheels because the wheels are probably really hot from the friction. I also have seen the sprinklers on Top Thrill

They have been on TTD for years. I've never seen them on MF before and don't remember hearing about them either. TDD has the water spraying along the launch track, MF is in the station.

Here's what is going on for I-305's wheels. I'm a little surprised that they'd suddenly be worries about issues with the wheels on Millennium Force, after operating it for ten years. I do recall the wheel experimentation the first year or two, with concave nylon wheels and what not. I thought they were long over that.

Is it possible that some of the spare wheels burned in that fire they had? Maybe they are trying to avoid needing any or as many?

I thought the fire was in a plumbing warehouse?

I noticed they had water running under the MF trains a couple weeks ago. Had totally forgotten about it. Maybe that explains why it felt like we were getting sprinkled on on our way up the lift hill last night. Wasn't a cloud in the sky, and felt like it was starting to rain.

I had the same feeling the other night also, felt like it was starting to rain coming through te 1st invert and just before the 1st tunnel. It was weird

Pete said:
I've never noticed this before, but I would think it cools the wheels to make them last longer.

Bingo. They were in place last summer too.

I remember last year I went on the only week that it was scorching hot at CP (it was about 95 and sunny all 3 days I was there), and when we pulled in, 2 of MF's trains were off the tracks, and they had mechanics replacing wheels on both of them. I'm guessing they only use these on the hot days.. based on the weather thus far this year, I'd say they're using a decent amount of water :)